[Steeltrap]

Black parents torn over ethnic names

By JUSTIN POPE
Associated Press


When Vonnessa Goode of Boston gives birth in a few weeks, one of her first decisions could be among the toughest: whether to give her daughter a distinctively black name.

On the one hand, Goode and the child's father don't want their
daughter "robbed of her ethnicity," she said. On the other, she
believes a distinctively black name could end up being an economic impediment.

"I do believe, now when a résumé comes across an employer's desk, they could be easily discriminated against because they know that person is of African-American descent," she said. "It's a difficult decision."

Minorities of all kinds have wrestled with whether to celebrate their culture by giving their children distinctive names or help them "blend in" with a name that won't stick out. Thousands of Jews have changed their names, hoping to improve their economic prospects in the face of discrimination, as have Asians and other minorities.

Blacks have chosen increasingly distinctive names over the past
century; the trend accelerated in the 1960s.

Researchers who looked at census records have found that 100 years ago, the 20 most popular names were largely the same for blacks and whites; now only a handful are among the most popular with both groups. Names like DeShawn and Shanice are almost exclusively black, while whites, whose names have also become increasingly distinctive, favor names like Cody and Caitlin.

Two recent papers from the National Bureau of Economic Research draw somewhat different conclusions about whether a black name is a burden.One, an analysis of the 16 million births in California between 1960 and 2000 (including me -- ST) , claims such name choice has no significant effect on how someone's life turns out.

The other, however, suggests that a black-sounding name remains an impediment in getting a job. After responding to 1,300 classified ads with dummy résumés, the authors found black-sounding names were 50 percent less likely to get a callback than white-sounding names with comparable résumés.

If nothing else, the first paper, by the bureau's Roland Fryer and the University of Chicago's Steven Levitt, based on California birth data, provides probably the most detailed snapshot yet of distinctive naming practices. It shows, for instance, that in recent years more than 40 percent of black girls were given names that weren't given to even one of the more than 100,000 white girls born in the state the same year.

The data do appear to show that a poor woman's daughter is more likely to be poor when she gives birth -- but no more so because she has a distinctively black name.

Fryer said the study shows that black parents shouldn't fear ethnic names and that they don't have to change their culture, but should push for greater integration.

The University of Chicago's Marianne Bertrand and MIT's Sendhil
Mullainathan, however, appeared to find that a black-sounding name can be an impediment in another recent National Bureau of Economic Research paper titled "Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal?"

The authors evaluated the content of 500 real résumés taken from online job boards, as objectively as possible, for quality, using such factors as education and experience. Then they replaced the names with made-up names picked to "sound white" or "sound black" and responded to 1,300 job ads in the Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune last year.

Previous studies examined how employers respond to similarly qualifiedapplicants they meet in person, but this experiment tried to isolate the response to the name itself.

White names drew about one callback per 10 résumés; black names got one per 15. Carries and Kristens had callback rates of more than 13 percent, but Aisha, Keisha and Tamika got 2.2 percent, 3.8 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively. And having a higher-quality résumé, featuring more skills and experience, made a white-sounding name 30 percent more likely to elicit a callback; black-sounding names were only 9 percent more likely to draw one.

Michelle Botus, a 37-year-old student at Massachusetts' Bunker Hill Community College whose children are Asia, Alaysia, Khalima and Denzil, said she would advise mothers to choose names they like, then make sure their children get the education they need to rise above any discrimination they might face.

"The fact you didn't give the child the name you wanted -- your
regrets could be manifested in other ways later on," said Botus. "I
would say, go for it. Just the fact that the mother would have the
insight to have a dilemma, that means she's thinking, and that's one of the most important skills in parenting."

Which way is Goode leaning? She says her daughter likely will end up with a "neutral" name -- Naomi or Layla, perhaps -- that won't signal her race either way.